“Parsons has a long history of engagement in Paris that goes back nearly a century to 1921, when it was the first American art and design school to establish a campus here,” said Susan Taylor-Leduc, dean of Parsons Paris. “Today, Parsons Paris will introduce a new, global model of design education that focuses on the increasingly interdisciplinary role of design in the contemporary world, but within a uniquely French context. Our students will take advantage of the unparalleled resources to be found in Paris, and we will also open our doors to the French art and design community here in our new home in the 1st Arrondissement.”

In its first year, Parsons Paris will welcome nearly 100 students studying across a number of disciplines, including Art, Media and Technology; Fashion; and Strategic Design and Management; both in its undergraduate programs as well as Study Abroad.

The student population will represent more than 25 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas. The school expects to eventually grow to a population of roughly 300 to 500 students, and will introduce graduate programs in Strategic Design and Management, Decorative Arts and Design, and Technology in Fall 2014.

Parsons Paris will formally inaugurate its new home with an exhibition of work by the award-winning, Paris-based contemporary artist and Parsons alumnus Evan Roth. Roth applies a hacker philosophy to an art practice that visualizes transient moments in public space, online and in popular culture, and his work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has received numerous awards, including the Prix Ars Electronica, one of the world’s most important media art awards, and also a National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, one of the top design awards in the United States.

Evan Roth

The exhibition, Evan Roth: New York to Paris explores Roth’s evolution as an artist from his time as a graduate student at Parsons, through his establishing a base in Paris. Included in the exhibition will be prints, video and sculptures that range from public space interventions to algorithmically-generated sculptures.

This year marks the third edition of Paris Design Week, which is held to remind visitors that design impacts everything and everyone in Paris, and everywhere else. In the city and its inner suburbs, 236 participants in 150 venues open their doors to illustrate this impact. Institutions, studios, workshops, galleries, stores, markets, hotels and restaurants outline seven creative journeys that show the involvement of design in our daily lives.